Rahul needs to change his advisors

Mimicking the VP will not hurt the TMC, but it will hurt the Congress politically.

- AJIT MAINDOLA

With the Congress facing humiliating defeats in elections, the question being debated is when the party’s top leader Rahul Gandhi will get the real pulse of India and its changing politics. It is already over two decades since the Gandhi scion joined active politics. The party has to suffer huge losses due to Rahul Gandhi’s controversial statements or conduct. Why did he stand with the opposition on the issue of mimicking Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar? He should have focused on the issue of security breach in Parliament. But Rahul rather preferred to focus on what an MP of a regional party TMC, Kalyan Banerjee, was doing. The incident will not harm TMC. But the Congress will suffer politically, because BJP has got an opportunity to target it over this issue.

A single mistake could be damaging for the party in this age of hyperactive social media. Congress has suffered a lot due to political mistakes it committed in the past two decades. Congress leaders’ statements have led to the defeat of the party in the elections. The examples are Gujarat assembly polls of 2017, and Lok Sabha elections of 2014 and 2019. Use of “Maut Ka Saudagar” and “Neech” remarks caused a material damage to Congress in Gujarat. Similarly, remarks like “Chaiwalla” in 2014 and “Chowkidar Chor Hai” in 2019 proved costly for Congress in the Lok Sabha elections. But Rahul did not learn his lessons. He used the word “panauti” to take a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the recently held Assembly polls.